1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a technique of controlling behavior of liquid crystal of the optically compensated bend or optically compensated birefringence (OCB) mode.
2. Related Art
As compared to liquid crystals in twisted neamtic (TN) mode and super twisted nematic (STN) mode, liquid crystals in the OCB mode provide a high-speed response with respect to selective electric voltage changes, offering an advantage that a wide angle of vision can be easily secured. Accordingly, it is particularly well suited to a display device displaying animation.
A liquid crystal in the OCB mode assumes spray orientation unfit for displaying images in a condition where the electric field is not impressed. Consequently, prior to displaying images, it is necessary to transfer the liquid crystal from the spray orientation to bend orientation suitable for displaying. As a technique to promote this transfer, for example, a construction in which numerous fine particles are dispersed in the liquid crystal is disclosed in JP-A-2004-310139 (FIG. 1).
Further, as described in JP-A-2002-357829 (FIG. 1) there is disclosed a construction in which convexities jutting out to the liquid crystal are formed of a color filter material. According to these constructions, it is possible for a transfer nucleus to be expressed from the spray orientation to the bend orientation in a vicinity of a singular point in a form such as a particle and a convexity.
However, in the constructions disclosed in the first example of related art and the second example of related art, the formation of elements such as particles and convexities is a must to generate the transfer nucleus, hence, there are problems of making the construction complex and increasing manufacturing cost by comparison to liquid crystal devices in TN mode and STN mode which dispense with such elements.